Maesia
Maesia is the titular setting of the Maesian Wars roleplay. It currently consists of a single continent (which for writing's sake also goes by the name of Maesia) and several surrounding islands and archipelagos. Due to seemingly strange climates depicted across the face of Maesia, it has been determined that the common map of Maesia is actually rotated on its axis, with the equator stretching from Delkeeps in the West to Borief in the East, but it has not been updated due to the easier-to-understand layout of the current map model. __TOC__ Creation The original concept of Maesia was generated using an online world generator called Worldgen. The original Maesian map only consisted of half of what is on the current map (ending at the Keletan Mountains). The original second half was lost when the map was cropped. The second half was generated (also using Worldgen) approximately two years later, and the map was then hand-drawn from the amalgamated map shortly thereafter. The original countries of Maesia were assigned to and named by the founding crew of Maesian Wars, when it existed as an MSN Messenger-based live-chat roleplay. Keleta, Komatsu, Mithra, Ruai, Thear, Valencia and Vinisynia are the original countries of Maesia. Western Maesia was then divided to include Delkeeps and Havamore (Delkeeps being assigned to a new crew-member and Havamore belonging to the owner of Ruai) when MW was converted to a forum-based roleplay. When Eastern Maesia was added an entire new set of countries was added so that Maesia would include Borief, Dorikel, Kaiske, The Lost Isles, Orsonth, Siontru, Srek Nakul and Srek Zeriann, as well as Fiernan (although this country is actually located in Western Maesia). All named by the same crew member and without claim by any one particular person, with the exception of Orsonth, being claimed by it's original creator before it was considered a nation of Maesia (it along with Siontru were added into the Maesian universe after their original creation for a non-related project). Countries Western Maesia *Havamore *Valencia *Fiernan *Ruai *Komatsu *Vinisynia *Keleta *Mithra *Thear *Delkeeps Eastern Maesia *Borief *Srek Zeriann *Srek Nakul *Orsonth *Siontru *Kaiske *Dorikel Society Maesia has been best described as "steampunk," but not in the usual sense. Maesia simply has access to select pieces of modern technology due to either scavenging from the ruins of ancient Elder Cities, or from technological advances introduced over time by the scientifically-advanced Elder race of the Coboros. Transportation Maesia does not have cars or any powered form of transportation. On land Maesians either travel by foot, on horseback, or via horse-drawn carriage. For ocean voyages they do have ships, operated either by sail or rowing (as slavery is still legal in several countries, slaves often find themselves rowing ships). There is no air travel save for those Races with the ability to fly, since airborne creatures large enough to carry weight are either long gone from the face of Maesia, or completely unable to be domesticated for such tasks. For those those with magical ability, however, there is a method of quick travel they can utilize. Mages are capable of using a magical portal system called the Nexus, which allows them to quickly move between portals they have created across the world. Creating such a portal can only be done from the destination, however, so the mage must first travel to the destination through conventional means before they can use the Nexus to travel there. Medical Practices : Main article: Medical Practices The Six Guilds of Magic have a Guild branch specifically devoted to White Magic, the study of healing and protection magic. There are also healers, who may or may not be white mages, who use more traditional healing methods. The most advanced medical research and technology, however, belongs to the Coboros, whose sole existance revolves around achieving physical perfection and attaining eternal life. Though their methods for obtaining their medical information is deeply frowned upon by all races (all stay away from areas where they are known to appear), there is no denying that the Coboros are the ones to go to when white mages and healers are unable to assist. The Coboros are not only ahead of Maesians in medical research, but are actually ahead of our own medical progress and capable of halting almost every illness if given enough time to study it (and enough "motivation" from the party requesting aid, usually consisting of test subjects for their experiments). Technology For the most part Maesian technology and lifestyles are similar to those of our late 15th century/early 16th century, otherwise known as the beginning of the Modern Age. Due to remnants of magical devices left over by the Elder races and also technology aquired through bartering with the scientifically-advanced Elder race of the Coboros, there are several modern (to us) comforts that many Maesian homes have. Lightbulbs and lamps are common in cities, and things such as refridgerators and occaisionally microwaves appear in households that can afford to acquire and maintain one. None of these devices are powered by electricity, however, since the Coboros refuse to patch the rest of Maesia into their power grids. These devices end up being powered by magic cells recovered from the remnants of Elder Cities, but each cell does have a limit on its power supply and eventually burns out (the average life of a magic cell can fall anywhere between ten to one hundred years). Since they lack the knowledge (or ability) to create more, magic cells are a hot commodity and it is rare to come across a Maesian who would not pay a hefty price to aquire one. Currency : Main article: Currency All of Western Maesia uses the gold/silver/copper currency system (whereas 100 coppers equal one silver, and 100 silvers equal one gold). Several locations in Eastern Maesia still use the barter system (normally smaller tribes, but the entire country of Kaiske operates its economy on this principle). Though they do accept coin due to its inherent value in other locales, it is generally of little use to those not travelling and interacting with other, non-bartering Maesians. Overall, however, a magic cell is the largest and most valuable piece of accepted currency in all of Maesia. Their worth fluctuates based on supply and demand, but at its absolutely lowest a magic cell has an equivalency of approximately 100 gold. Religion : Main article: Religion